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Saturday, August 20, 2005
Live at GenCon ‘05: Dungeons and Dragons Online Demo
We stopped by the Turbine booth to check out their upcoming massively multiplayer online roleplaying game: Dungeons and Dragons Online. Check out the video.
Turbine Presents: Dungeons and Dragons Online (Quicktime required)
2005 ENnies winners announced
Amidst all the excitement of GenCon Indy, the 2005 Gen Con EN World RPG Award winners were announced. The winners are copied below, though all of the nominees are worth checking out.
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Live at GenCon ‘05: Jason Mical of WizKids
Steve’s prepping more video footage, so he asked me to point out Mike’s interview with Jason Mical, WizKids Marketing Director. Watch the video and learn more about WizKids’ current plans, including some tidbits on NASCAR Race Day and the Battlestar Galactica CCG.
Jason Mical of WizKids (Quicktime required)
D&D Minis news trickling out of Indy
According to numerous websites, there’s a fair amount of D&D Miniatures information coming out of GenCon. Here’s what I’ve been able to round up:
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Live and mostly conscious from Gen Con Indy 05
Troll Lord claims to be doing really well with their OGL-adaptation Castles and Crusades. They mentioned how they let online fans in on the development of the game - Daniel Chenault specifically talked about how, no matter how smart a designer is, he’s never going to be as smart as the whole Internet. Good man - I wish more design processes would let fans in. C&C looks simple and sharp - a basic old-school fantasy RPG romp. Good times for those who seek good times in such.
Shifting Forest does what they call “Parlor LARPs” - live game books designed for four to eight players, which I can imagine would materially change the LARP experience by a lot. And they’re doing a lot of the darn things. They handed me The Queen of Hearts, a murder mystery with intriguing atmosphere, and an adultified, dark take on Snow White. They still look a little systems-heavy to me, but Steve says they’re the LARPs for people who hate LARPs. Because apparently Steve hates LARPs. I’d link to their site but they told me it was broken and to try in a couple days. Google is your friend.
Forge-a-mania! The great thing about the Forge booth is that whatever you pick up from that little stand full of books, some game designer standing nearby will point to it and go, “Dude! I love that game. I stole a mechanic from it for my game! Plus if you like that you should really check out this other guy’s game over here! And yip yip yip yip arooooo!” (Note: small-dog barking and howling added for emphasis) Thing about the Forge books is that each is small (good) and more expensive than you’d think (also good and sensible in my opinion), but so many of them look worth owning that you actually end up spending a hell of a lot. I picked up Emily Care Boss’ Breaking the Ice (”A Game About Love, For Two” - I was too scared of it to not buy it), Under the Bed by Joshua Newman (the spare, tiny visual design got me to buy it, and it looks similar to Puppetland), and the No Press RPG Anthology (eight standalone games in one big ol’ green book I’ve never seen in a store). Tomorrow I might go back for The Mountain Witch (phenomenal buzz on this), Dogs in the Vineyard, or, God help me, something else. It seems like half the RPG energy at the show is focused on the Forge (and stuff like it, such as Wicked Dead), with the other half split between the Serenity RPG and Green Ronin.
The Torg Revised-and-Expanded “1.5″ edition is indeed in print at the show. Not so much energy there, but hey, yay for products on time.
Demoed the City of Heroes CCG. There is a tremendous amount going on in this game, even in slim 25-card demo decks, but the design still feels really elegant - probably as elegant as a make-your-own-super card game could be. I know I’ve said this kind of thing before, notably about the luckfest that was Initial D, but I was impressed and I think it might have legs (by depressed CCG standards anyway). Have not yet demoed WizKids’ High Stakes Drifter nor, I’m very sad to say, Clout Fantasy. I hope to at least fix the latter situation later tonight.
My legs hurt.
Live at GenCon ‘05: Privateer Press Announcement
Matt Wilson of Privateer Press announced the upcoming release of their new miniatures game called Hordes. Check out the video of the announcement and the figures.
Privateer Press Hordes announcement (Quicktime required)
Live at GenCon ‘05: Ryan Miller on Hecatomb
We dragged lead Hecatomb R&D guy, Ryan Miller, to the back recesses of the press room to find out more about Hecatomb. Check out this video clip of the full interview.
Ryan Miller on Hecatomb (Quicktime required)
Friday, August 19, 2005
Live at GenCon ‘05: Things I saw today that I didn’t wave a microphone at
So I spoke with Avalon Hill brand manager Linda Cox at length today - she didn’t want to be on the podcast, citing excessive self-consciousness, and since she’s not on the podcast, I actually had to remember what she said. We mostly talked very generally, though. Axis & Allies Miniatures has of course become one of the monster hits of the con, selling out its daily allocation in about an hour each day. I tried to get her to spill about the Seekrit Projekt alluded to in that Robo Rally article a while back; no go. Mostly we talked about the perceived “lightness” of AH’s current offerings compared to its history. I came away from the conversation a little dubious about the claims that hardcore wargamers welcomed this game as a good introduction to historical gaming for beginners (probably a few did, but come on), but confident that AH is doing the right things right now. Avalon Hill’s market is at a point where it needs to be grown aggressively, and you aren’t going to bring in new people by, say, reprinting Kingmaker. (My out-of-nowhere example, not Ms. Cox’s.) Games like A&A Minis and Nexus Ops stand a chance to do that.
Uhh… what else. Laughing Pan’s Plunder card game looks awfully good, and it’s always telling when you see random people playing it in random places, which I have. Same for FFG’s totally freaking enormo Descent. I still need to poke through the Forge offerings some more, such as the new edition of Primetime Adventures. FanPro has that new edition of Shadowrun and it’s selling quickly, as is (yes, folks, it’s) the Serenity RPG by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. And uhhh, Star Wars Universe, which, like Rocketmen, is not technically a show release. I will think of more when I am more well slept okay. More video coming shortly.
Live at GenCon ‘05: Peter Adkison Speaks
On Thursday, we members of the press were treated to an informal press conference and QA with Peter Adkison: Owner and CEO of GenCon. For the first time, we have video footage of his short presentation.
Peter Adkison speaks (Quicktime required)
Live at GenCon ‘05: A Tour of the Forge, and other things
I must say I feel a little bad. I completely missed the guys at The Forge at GenCon SoCal last year, and they had some new items. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, I stopped in to take a look at what they had for GenCon Indy.
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